The youngest ever Premier League managers

Football managers, across the world, are conventionally old and proven, or better say management is commonly an older man's game, with most of them only turning to the dugout until their 40s and beyond.

With their expertise, they are to find the right path to satiate the teams' quest for glory. Needless to say, they are expected to have a welter of experiences to nurture the squad and provide motivational talks so as to steer the team forward and help them out to overcome the crisis.

But that's not always the case, in as much as there are few instances that young and dynamic people are chosen as managers, and much to your consternation, they have lived up to the expectation quite well.

Since the formation of the Premier League in 1992, a number of surprisingly youthful managers have taken charge in the English top-flight, while some of them even have split their time between managing and playing.

It is crystal clear that they would not have very lengthy resumes, therefore they have been picked more on the merit of their achievements thus far, though others have been in the management game longer.

Among them, the former Tottenham midfielder, Ryan Mason has broken a 23-year-old record while he took charge of Spurs as their interim manager in replacement of Jose Mourinho and hence became the Premier League's youngest-ever manager.

Mason has beaten the record set by former

caretaker boss Attilio Lombardo by over two years. In this regard, we have come up with the list of

the youngest ever Premier League managers

to shed more light on who they are, how old they were and how they got on. 

The youngest ever Premier League managers

Here you would go through an engaging ride through the list of the youngest ever Premier League managers, so without further ado, let's buckle up for the long ride ahead.

Paul Jewell

• Managerial debut club

  : Bradford City

• Debut age

  : 34 years, 10 months, 10 days

• Date of birth

  : 28 September 1964 (age 56)

As a

legend, Paul Jewell spent ten years of his playing career with the Bantams between 1988 and 1998. Even in his last three years with them, he was a player-coach in the club and therefore it was no wonder to see his promotion to manager's job, as he is considered to be among the

youngest managers in Premier League history

.

In his first full season in the job, he steered Bradford to the Premier League and took charge of his first game in the league in a 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough in August 1999.

After he led the Bantams to their first season in the top-flight for 77 years, he called the shots in the Premier League in a season which saw them scrape to survive by the skin of their teeth with a 1-0 victory over

on the final day.

Yet soon after chairman Geoffrey Richmond had the guts to describe their 17th-placed finish as 'disappointing', Jewell packed his bags and walked.

Although he notched up success with Wigan, Jewell is presumably best known for being in charge of an abysmal Derby County side which stumbled to a record-low of just 11 points in a Premier League season.

He also had stints in charge of Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town, before he worked as an assistant at West Brom and Oldham Athletic.

Stuart Pearce

• Managerial debut club

  : Nottingham Forest

• Debut age

  : 34 years, 7 months, 27 days

• Date of birth

  : 24 April 1962 (age 59)

As one of

the Premier League youngest ever managers

, Stuart Pearce officially started his managerial profession in 2005, but his first taste of management actually came nine years earlier in December 1996 while his playing days were far from finished in

.

He was put in caretaker charge after Frank Clark's resignation while he eventually took charge of 12 games before the arrival of Dave Bassett.

But in that short span of time, without the shadow of a doubt he proved his capabilities as he was awarded the January manager of the month award.

At the same time, in his first game in charge, after hours of working on his lineup, he was told that he had forgotten to indicate goalkeeper Mark Crossley in the team sheet. That is to say, he was that much clueless and inexperienced in his early game, yet he managed to beat

in the same match.

He continued his playing career until the age of 40, before he went on taking the charge of Manchester City, England national under-21 team from 2007 to 2013, the Great Britain Olympic football team at the 2012 Olympics and finally Nottingham Forest once again. Then Pearce came back to West Ham's first-team coach, assisting manager David Moyes.

Alex Neil

• Managerial debut club

  : Norwich City

• Debut age

  : 34 years, 1 month, 30 days

• Date of birth

  : 9 June 1981 (age 40)

When Championship side

brought Alex Neil south of the border from Hamilton Academical in January 2015, he became the second-youngest boss in the entire Football League.

As one of the

youngest ever Premier League managers

, he took charge of his first Premier League game in a 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace.

He successfully guided the Canaries back to the top flight only after four months that he had moved south of the border from the Scottish side Hamilton Academical to Carrow Road.

In charge of Norwich City, he led them to win 17 of their 25 regular matches in the second half of the season, while they beat Middlesbrough in the play-off final.

As he had started a season in the Premier League only after passing few months from his turning 34, he eventually was not capable to keep them up and therefore departed as manager following an unsuccessful six months back in the Championship.

Then at the helm of Preston North he led the team to seventh place in the 2017–18 Championship and at the moment, he is without a job after his three years at the Preston North End were terminated by reciprocal consent earlier this year.

Kevin MacDonald

• Managerial debut club

  : Leicester City

• Debut age

  : 34 years and 1 day

• Date of birth

  : 22 November 1960 (age 60)

Kevin MacDonald who was a Scottish midfielder had started his playing career at Filbert Street therefore he took his first managerial post - albeit a brief one - in the same club.

At the youthful age of 34 years 1 day, he stepped in for the departing Brian Little for a visit of Arsenal, as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to a side in turmoil.

As a prolific caretaker and manager, he has spent a considerable amount of time plugging the holes between permanent bosses, and took his first gig with

in 1994.

Being among the youngest Premier League managers, he just managed the Foxes as caretaker for an inconspicuous three games between the departure of Brian Little and the arrival of Mark McGee.

Then he left to join the Aston Villa reserve set up in 1995 and spent three spells as the Villains' caretaker boss. Hence, apart from a short six-month stint at Swindon Town, he was not appointed as a manager for a long time.

Later the former Liverpool midfielder came to the spotlight with his coaching career during his four separate stints as a caretaker at Aston Villa. Finally, in August 2019, he was ousted from his role as coach at Villa Park after his allegations of bullying.

Ruud Gullit

• Managerial debut club

  : Chelsea

• Debut age

  : 33 years, 11 months, 17 days

• Date of birth

  : 1 September 1962 (age 58)

is the first member of three Chelsea managers in our list of

the youngest ever Premier League managers

. Ruud Gullit had still been a regular fixture in Glenn Hoddle's team during the 1995-96 campaign.

But as soon as the manager left to take the England job, Ruud Gullit became the first black manager in Premier League history as he took over as player-manager of Chelsea in the summer of 1996.

As he approached the end of his playing career, the legendary Dutchman began the 1996/97 season with a forgettable goalless draw against Southampton.

Gullit made the hay while the sun shone and in his debut season led Chelsea to the FA Cup, their first major trophy in 26 years, while beating Middlesbrough 2-0 in the FA Cup Finals as they finished sixth in the Premiership, therefore he became the first black manager to lift a major trophy in Britain.

Notwithstanding the continuation of his making impression as a manager, he was dismissed as Chelsea lying second in the Premiership table. After the controversial firing, chairman Ken Bates confessed, “I didn’t like his arrogance - in fact, I never liked him!”

After spending spans at the helm of

, Feyenoord, LA Galaxy and Russian Premier League side Terek Grozny, Gullit hasn’t been remained in the dugout for over a decade and at the moment is more regularly seen as a pundit.

Andre Villas-Boas

• Managerial debut club

  : Chelsea

• Debut age

  : 33 years, 9 months, 28 days

• Date of birth

  : 17 October 1977 (age 43)

Chelsea was in quest of a manager after Carlo Ancelotti left in the summer of 2011, while they'd done with Jose Mourinho seven years earlier.

So they looked to

and paid a whopping amount of £13.3 million in compensation to get one of the youngest ever Premier League managers.

Back then he was called the

due to the fact that he drew a lot of resemblance to him in terms of being Portuguese; youthful, and joining the Premier League off the back of leading Porto to European glory.

However his first game, a goalless draw away to Stoke, perhaps didn't augur too well and with the arrival of spring, the onus had begun to mount on the promising boss.

They had miserably dropped out of the Premier League top four, were out of the League Cup and trailed 3-1 after the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Napoli.

The reason why he was ousted in February of his first season while he remained less than nine months in the job, was that the Blues dropped out of the Champions League places following a 1-0 defeat to West Brom on March 4, 2012.

After all, his squad fairly wasn't so bad, in as much as his successor Roberto Di Matteo went on to lift the UEFA Champions League trophy for Chelsea that very season.

Afterwards, from managing Tottenham Hotspur to bizarrely striving in the Dakar Rally, his career has taken many twists and turns in the last decade.

His most recent gig at Marseille reached to an end with his scathing remarks that he lashed out at the board for signing a player against his wishes.

Gianluca Vialli

• Managerial debut club

  : Chelsea

• Debut age

  : 33 years, 227 days

• Date of birth

  : 9 July 1964 (age 57)

Gianluca Vialli is the third Chelsea manager included in the list of our youngest ever Premier League managers. He stepped in to replace Ruud Gullit as player-manager at Stamford Bridge in 1998 and took advantage of considerable success during his span of two and a half years at the helm of the club.

Much to many people's consternation, he was appointed to the club and under his stewardship,

won six of their final ten league games so as to secure a fourth-placed finish and they were also led to the League Cup and then the European Cup Winner’s Cup.

Then he went on to produce even more success as Chelsea celebrated their best league season since 1970, taking the third spot.

But after lifting more silverware in an FA Cup triumph, Vialli was fired following five league matches of the 2000/01 season along with a dressing room bust-up.

He only ever took charge of one more team: Watford. But his span at the Hornets only lasted one year prior to his dismissal from the club in the face of his poor results. He also went into punditry and worked previously as a commentator for Sky Sport Italia.

While at the moment, he is a member of the Italy national football team non-playing staff in the place of a delegation chief.

Chris Coleman

• Managerial debut club

  : Fulham

• Debut age

  : 32 years, 313 days

• Date of birth

  : 10 June 1970 (age 51)

After Chris Coleman broke his leg in a car crash his playing career at Fulham reached to its end while he joined the club’s coaching staff under Jean Tigana before succeeding the Frenchman in a caretaker role after his dismissal in March 2003.

The former Welsh international became one of the youngest manager in Premier League history and even the youngest manager in the club’s history but he became a true shining light in his first senior coaching role, as he led the club to a ninth-place finish in his first full season in charge.

The sales of numerous stars had led

unqualified to build on their top-half finish, even though Coleman kept the club away from peril throughout his four years in charge.

He remained at the charge of Fulham until April 2007 which put Fulham on the brink of relegation. In spite of the fact that he never reached the same heights again, they never relegated under his stewardship.

Therefore he was ousted after a seven-game winless run in April 2007 and since had spans at the helm of the clubs like Real Sociedad, Sunderland and the Wales national team. At the moment he finds himself out of work following unfortunate spans at Sunderland and Hebei China Fortune.

Attillio Lambardo

• Managerial debut club

  : Crystal Palace

• Debut age

  : 32 years, 67 days

• Date of birth

  : 6 January 1966 (age 55)

After Steve Coppell stepped aside as manager in February 1998 and moved into a Director of Football role at Selhurst Park, in his replacement Crystal Palace assigned Italian international Attilio Lombardo as player-coach for the sake of saving the club’s season.

As he took the role of player-manager in March 1998, he became one of the youngest managers in Premier League history and led the Eagles out for a 3-1 loss to

.

The reality is that he had considerable experiences on the pitch as he arrived in south London with two Serie A titles and a UEFA Champions League trophy anchored to his name.

But apart from playing, he had no coaching credentials when he became one of the Premier League youngest ever managers. Therefore it was no wonder to see that Palace lost five of the rest final seven games of the 1997/98 season and was soon relegated to the second tier.

In his managerial career, Lombardo never earned that much accolades, yet instead paved his way as a second in command. He took advantage of a brief span as assistant manager to Roberto Mancini at Manchester City and currently works with his compatriot for the Italian national side.

Ryan Mason

• Managerial debut club

  : Tottenham Hotspur

• Debut age

  : 29 years, 312 days

• Date of birth

  : 13 June 1991 (age 29)

Tottenham interim manager

made history as he became one of the Premier League youngest ever managers, achieving the feat by rather a distance just at age of 29 years old.

After the dismissal of Jose Mourinho, he was assigned as interim manager of

, therefore will become the first Premier League manager aged under 30.

In his playing career, he went through the academy system at Tottenham and afterwards finely honed his skills with a sequence of loan spans.

Then he was transferred to Hull City in a club-record £13m contract in 2016, but after appearing just 20 times for the club before his career prematurely reached to its end by a fractured skull injury which he underwent in a game against Chelsea.

Hence after his lengthy recovery, since further playing football was detrimental to his health, despite his reluctance he announced his retirement from playing. Consequently, he came back to Spurs but this time with a coaching capacity in 2018 and since then has worked with numerous sides at the youth level.

Mason won his first match in charge of Tottenham, as they defeated Southampton at home 2–1 on 21 April. But just after four days, the club lost the 2021 EFL Cup Final with a single goal to Manchester City.

He went on to oversee five more games at the helm of the team, while they won three games and were beaten at two matches so as to finish 7th at the end of the season.

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